Green Your Child’s School Lunch

Home-packed lunches can be fun, healthy, and green, with very little time or money required. I calculated that my child’s lunch, including organic fruit, required less than five minutes on average and $1.00 per day last year-compared to over $2.25 for school lunch. Try these suggestions to green your packed lunches, whether for children, adults, or picnics!

Choose greener foods: An environmentally friendly lunch will limit packaged and processed foods and focus low on the food chain. Avoid food waste, too: many schools have a very short lunch period, and your child may only be able to eat a small amount of food in that time. Consider thinking of lunch and an after-school snack as two small meals, both consisting of healthy foods, to substitute for a larger lunch.

Add a surprise: A funny note or a short poem tucked into the lunchbox is fun for young ones.

Be prepared: Don’t expect to be very inspired in the middle of the morning school rush. Take a few minutes during a quiet time to make a list of the foods your child would like to eat for lunch, and add the ingredients to your grocery list. It doesn’t need to be an extensive list: some children are happy eating the same lunch for a surprisingly long string of days.